Lives Entwined
by Wilusa
Summary: If it should really be necessary to bring characters' stories to a close, here's a surprise fate might have in store for Echo.


DISCLAIMER: One Life to Live and its characters are the property of ABC; no copyright infringement is intended.

_**Note:**_ _As I write this in May 2011, I'm hoping against hope that One Life to Live can be saved. But with the very real possibility of its going off the air next year, I couldn't resist writing this end story for a favorite recurring character..._

_**Note added 1/16/12:**_ _Sadly, the show has ended. And I've made a small change here, to reflect __**how**__ it ended._

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For the last week, Echo di Savoy had sensed that someone was following her. Stalking her.

She hadn't mentioned it to Rex. He had enough on his plate. And she thought she might be imagining the whole thing. _Who'd stalk me? Who the hell would care enough about me, one way or the other, to stalk me?_

Still, she'd taken precautions. Avoided being alone on the street, at any hour.

But on this night, she'd been forced to park two blocks from the site of the anniversary bash at which she'd be taking photographs. Then the party had run later than expected. When it broke up, the restaurant had closed; its staff, and the carpooling guests, had departed _en masse_. As she hurried back toward her car, she imagined there was no one else, awake and alert, within a mile of her.

_Unless I really have a stalker._

_There is no stalker there is no stalker there is no stalker!_

But there was.

And he was prepared to do more than stalk.

When she was within yards of the car, she was grabbed from behind. Before she could catch her breath to let out a scream, a man's hand was clamped over her mouth. With his other hand, he turned her to face him, and pinned her against a streetlight pole.

She fought desperately to free herself, to no avail.

But even in her terror, she realized there was something odd about this "attack." The man was very strong, holding her very tight; yet he was taking care not to hurt her, even slightly. And why hadn't he dragged her into a dark alley or gangway? Why did he want to be near, of all things, a _streetlight?_

When she gave up struggling, a voice rough with emotion said, "I'm sorry I had to do this. Don't scream! I promise I won't hurt you. Please...just let me _look at you!_"

He took his hand away from her mouth.

At that point she could have screamed.

Instead, she looked at _him_. And then she heard herself whisper, "Wh-why are you crying?"

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Daybreak found her, in nightgown and robe, pacing the floor of her bedroom. Where she'd spent the night with her stalker, of her own free will. He was sitting on the edge of the bed, quietly watching her.

"I'm _not_ the woman you were looking for," she said urgently. "You do _know_ that, don't you?

"I don't have amnesia. I know who I am and where I've been, at every stage of my life. And I can never be...for you...someone I'm not."

Slowly, reluctantly, he said, "I know. Maybe it's time I stopped searching for her."

"You're not sure?"

He shook his head. "All I'm sure of is that I've been living like a monk for years. Last night was good for me, and I think it was good for you."

"Once during the night," she reminded him, "you called me by her name."

"I'm sorry about that. But you called me the wrong name, too."

Sudden tears stung her eyes. "The man I love is even more out of reach than the woman you love. He actually rejected me."

"So why don't we give it a try?"

"I have to stay in Llanview," she told him. "My son and his family will be spending most of the next two years in England. He owns a nightclub here, and I've promised to run it for him. I can't let him down. Are _you_ willing to stay in Llanview?"

"I'm willing to...give it a try."

She managed a shaky laugh. "Two damaged people. _Again._ No promises, no talk about 'always'..."

He said firmly, "_No._ Let's just appreciate what we have, here and now."

As he got to his feet and pulled her into an embrace, the morning sun streamed through the window.

If anyone other than Echo had somehow witnessed these scenes, this would have been their first glimpse of the man's face.

A man they might have recognized, named Jeffrey O'Neill.

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The End

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_**Author's Afterword:**_ Obviously, this story is not set in the same reality as my Guiding Light fics. And it requires certain assumptions, also rather obvious to a fan of Guiding Light:

1. Villain Edmund Winslow had learned Reva Shayne O'Neill and Josh Lewis were traveling together (with her baby), and menaced them. They got away from him, at least briefly. They notified kin in Springfield that in hopes of eluding him, they were going to drop completely off the grid...and then proceeded to do so. Neither Reva nor Josh had spoken to her son Jonathan. So he never had a chance to tell them what he _would_ have told them in that contingency: that her husband Jeffrey was alive, and might be hot on Edmund's heels.

2. Within a month or two of that breaking-off of contact - in, let's say, January of 2011 - Jeffrey killed Edmund. However it played out, he was unable to learn whether Edmund had found and harmed Reva, Josh, and/or baby Colin.

3. Jeffrey went back to Springfield, and surfaced publicly. He explained enough that Reva, on learning it, would have known it was safe to come home; any "relationship issues" could be worked out, lovingly. The story was not only broadcast on WSPR-TV, but published on its website and picked up by national media.

4. But there's never been any response from Reva or Josh; they, and Colin, have vanished without a trace. It's possible they're safe and sound, in a remote part of the world...afraid to risk going online, lest their choice of websites to visit alert Edmund or his agents. But Jeffrey has to fear one or more of the missing are dead. If Josh and the baby had been killed, and a traumatized Reva had survived, she could have developed amnesia! She'd had amnesia before. So that's why, after he'd already "lived like a monk" throughout his year-and-a-half hunt for Edmund, he's spent the last year searching...for all of them, but especially for his beloved Reva.

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_**A Final Note, 1/16/12:** I_n the first version of this story, written before we knew Rex would ultimately leave Llanview, my explanation of Echo's need to stay there was a simple "I may be the town pariah, but I'm not leaving my son." I liked that line!


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